Tag Archives | Presidential Campaign

Journalists are not supposed to have political opinions and yet we all do. Our “biases” are usually disguised, not blatant or overtly partisan, and can be divined in what stories we cover and how we cover them.

Even ‘just the fact’s maam,’ journos for big media have to decide which facts to include and which to ignore.

Our outlooks are always shaped by our worldviews, values and experience, not too mention the outlets we work for.

Which brings me to the challenge of seeking truth and recognizing it when you see it.

I have to admit that I was seduced by the idea of Barack Obama.

The idea of a black President, the idea of a young President, the idea of an articulate President, and the idea of a man married to such a stand up woman from a working class family was hard to resist.

Here’s a guy who seemed really smart, not just because he went to Harvard, but because professors there I liked were impressed with him.… Read the rest

In a climatic moment at last Thursday's Republican presidential debate, Herman Cain summed up his vision for the future with message "Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it's never easy when there's so much on the line" -- a direct quote lifted from the song "The Power of One" from the film Pokemon: The Movie 2000. Cain has also quoted the Pokemon movie "on his official website, at his official campaign announcement in May, and at the Republican Leadership Conference in June." It raises the question, what exactly is going on with Herman Cain and Pokemon? Via Joystiq:

For all he has managed to accomplish in the presidency, these are perhaps the five biggest disappointments thus far. Stephen Webster of Raw Story examines Obama’s campaign promises that never came true:

1. Health care for all
Ultimately, the [health care] debate in Washington became so heated and rife with disinformation that the administration agreed to forgo the public option, using it as a bargaining chip to ensure other proposals were passed. They also gave in to Republican demands and extended the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, promising to take on the issue again in 2012. In spite of the modest legislative victory of actually getting health reform passed, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that even after all the elements take effect in 2014, over 22 million Americans will still lack access to basic health services.

2. Close Guantanamo
As a symbol of everything that liberals thought to be wrong with the Bush-era, closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison should have been an easy target for the new and popular president and his Democratic super-majority in Congress — and, in fact, then-candidate Obama promised to do just that.

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump said Thursday he isn’t convinced that President Barack Obama was born in the United States ,but says he hopes the president can prove that he was.

Officials in Hawaii have certified Obama’s citizenship, but “birthers” have demanded additional proof. And Trump, who is weighing whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, says not all the questions have been answered.

In an interview broadcast Thursday, Trump told NBC News he plans to decide by June whether to run, and said that if he is the GOP nominee, “I’d like to beat him straight up,” not on the basis of the question of where Obama was born.

Trump insisted he didn’t introduce the citizenship issue, but he isn’t letting go of it either.

The Presidential campaign enters the digital age in Brazil this week. From People’s Daily:

Brazil held on Wednesday its first online presidential debate, which gathered the three front-runners in the presidential campaign.

They were: Dilma Rousseff from the Workers’ Party, handpicked by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for succession; Jose Serra from the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, the main opposition candidate; and Green Party’s Marina Silva.

Topics such as education, public health system, basic sanitation and taxes were debated by the participants, who also had the opportunity to question each other and answer questions from journalists and netizens.

The debate, marked by frequent accusations and criticisms, was more fierce than a previous TV debate two weeks ago.

Serra kept his strategy of criticizing the Lula administration, while both Rousseff and Silva intensified their attacks on Serra’s records as governor of Sao Paulo state (Jan. 2007 to March 2010) and health minister under former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002).